In a case that stirred racial tensions across the U.S., avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. of Maumee, Oh., pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal hate crime charges in a deadly attack at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., the Associated Press reports. Fields admitted that he intentionally plowed his speeding car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens. Fields pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 federal charges stemming from the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017.
In a plea agreement, federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Fields and will dismiss the one count that carried death as a possible punishment. His admissions call for life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. He said he drove into the ethnically diverse crowd of anti-racism protesters because of their race, color, religion or national origin. Fields, 21, was convicted in December in a Virginia court of first-degree murder and other state charges for killing activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others who were protesting against the white nationalists. The rally drew white nationalists to Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.